Social Security Fairness Act Repealing WEP/GPO Becomes Law

January 8, 2025

On January 5, 2025, President Biden signed into law the Social Security Fairness Act - legislation that repeals both the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), two provisions of Social Security that reduce or sometimes eliminate benefits for certain public servants, as well as their surviving spouses. The Act makes payments retroactive to January 2024.

Decades in the making, the Social Security Fairness Act repealing the WEP and GPO impacts these reduced benefits to nearly 3 million retirees. That includes those who also collect pensions from state and federal jobs that aren't covered by Social Security, including teachers, police officers, firefighters and U.S. postal workers. The bill would also end a second provision that reduces Social Security benefits for those workers' surviving spouses and family members.

According to the Congressional Research Service, the WEP impacts about 2 million Social Security beneficiaries and the GPO nearly 800,000 retirees. Congress enacted legislation reducing Social Security benefits through GPO and WEP in 1977 and 1983, respectively.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is evaluating the process of recalculating the benefits of the current retirees who have had their Social Security benefits reduced by the WEP or reduced/eliminated by the GPO.

The SSA has provided only limited guidance at this point and provided no estimate of timing of new calculations.

SSA has stated that individuals do not need to take any action, other than ensuring that SSA has the correct mailing address and direct deposit information. SSA has also stated that someone who is covered by a public pension and thus did not previously apply for benefits may do so now at www.SSA.gov.

To determine if the WEP and GPO penalties repeal will impact you please contact Social Security. The SSA can provide personalized information about how these changes may impact benefits.

We will provide updates as Social Security provides more information. For additional information, please contact Irica Solomon, Head of Government Affairs.